EWING — Wayne Dickens wrestled with the traffic in the all-too-frequent construction zones on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Wednesday night then survived a night on a sciatica-irritating dormitory mattress in his first full day on The College of New Jersey campus Thursday.

However, by Friday morning things were looking up. The 62-year-old graduate of Orange High School and Rutgers College had an office, his new, full-time assistant coach was evaluating players on videotape and he had accidently discovered the Starbucks just north of the school on Route 31.

After a couple of weeks in limbo after the sudden resignation of long-time head coach Eric Hamilton on July 18, the TCNJ football program was back in business with Dickens, the new TCNJ head coach who has worked at the lowest and highest levels of the game, already in a take-charge mode. Dickens will open his first TCNJ camp on Aug. 15 and coach his first game Sept. 6 at Ursinus College.

Between now and then Dickens has to evaluate a season’s worth of video, decide which side of the ball he will personally concentrate on, choose a basic offense and defensive scheme, try to learn the names of some of his players, find a place to live and, most importantly, get his mattress — resting in the back of a van someplace between Frankfort, Ky. and TCNJ — into his sleeping quarters as soon as possible.

“We have all the time there is,” said Dickens, who didn’t have his contract renewed after four seasons as the head coach at Division II Kentucky State University. “We have 168 hours in a week and we will use all of them so that when Sept. 6 comes we will put a representative team on the field.”

Dickens comes to TCNJ with 40 years of coaching experience.

“Not all of that experience is reflected on my resume,” Dickens admitted.

He was a center-linebacker on the Orange High School team and then played for John Bateman at Rutgers when the biggest game on the schedule was the annual meeting with Princeton University. His first job was coaching youth football in Franklin Township after his college graduation in 1973. In the years since, he has coached high school, semi-pro and even a women’s team. He has been an assistant under Don James at the University of Washington and Ted Tollner at San Diego State, served as an NFL intern under Dave Wannstedt when he was the head coach in both Chicago and Miami, coached special teams in the Canadian Football League, worked with NFL draft choices and installed the single wing when both his quarterbacks were injured at Kentucky State last season.

No matter what level, what age or what gender, Dickens has learned one thing about football players.

“Football is about what is inside you,” Dickens said. “I am told the guys here will play hard and work hard.”

Dickens, however, did not have a longing to be a football coach. In fact, he was reluctantly sucked into the profession. He was an insurance underwriter with Mutual Benefit Life in Newark. When the company relocated to Chicago, Dickens left New Jersey and didn’t return until two days ago. He also worked in the telecommunications field with a sales area that stretched from the Rocky Mountains to Singapore at a time when he spent 40 weeks a year on an airplane.

While living in the Seattle area, Dickens took a job at the urging of friends as the offensive coordinator at a local high school. In 1991, he took the head coaching job at Garfield High School in Seattle and led the team to an 8-2 record and the state playoffs. In February of 1992, James offered him a job as a graduate assistant at University of Washington.

“The night after coach James called me, I went to an italian store in Bellevue and bought some fresh pasta and homemade gravy,” Dickens said. “I got home, turned on some music and lit a fire to take the chill off a cool Northwest evening. I thought, I’m going to give all this up? They must be out of their minds.”

The next morning, at 8:30 a.m., Dickens called James and accepted the job.

He has been a football addict ever since.

Dickens said both his offense and defense will be “adaptive.”

“Offense is college football has evolved into being quarterback dependent,” Dickens said. “If you have a good one, you’ll be a pretty good team. If you don’t, chances are you will struggle.”

He also admitted to being “old school.”

“There are 11 guys on offense,” he said. “You have to use all of them. But first and foremost, you have to run the ball. Passing is all nice and sexy, but if you can’t run the ball you are not going to be successful. It might be for 80 or 90 yards per game or for 200, but you have to be able to run the ball.

“We will be as multiple as our personnel will allow.”

Dickens and Rocky Hager, the new full-time assistant, both have experience coaching on both sides of the ball. Hager was the defensive line coach at Bryant University last season and was an offensive coach for seven seasons at Temple University. Dickens said he and Hager “are old friends.”

After evaluating film, Dickens said he will decide which side of the ball he will coach.

“I will take the heaviest load,” Dickens said. “Whatever side of the ball needs the work is where I will be.”

He half-jokingly said that decision would be made by 4 p.m. Friday afternoon.
Givens said he will rely on returning assistant coaches for information on the players. They will be rested upon arrival at camp.

“The tests will not be the end all of end alls,” Givens said. “Players need to show me something that qualifies them for the job. They’ve got to earn it.

“I have nothing but an open mind,” he added.

Givens said he had not spoken to Hamilton, who was the head coach at TCNJ for 37 years.

“But I plan to,” Givens said.

So while the task is formidable and the time short, Givens was not short of enthusiasm.

“I haven’t been this excited since the morning I called Don James and joined his staff,” Givens said.